Beware! Trade Swing is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
Trade Swing is just another broker who is only after your money and who does not offer any sort of trading opportunities. The list of things you would not get access to with this company is long – a functional trading platform, any sort of legal documentation, the safety of trading with a licensed broker, etc. The chance of you losing money is huge if you chose to invest it with this broker – we would recommend that you read our review before taking such risks.
Trade Swing REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Trade Swing states that it is based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines – that is our first red flag. This country does not actually have a financial authority that monitors the activities of forex brokers – the local financial regulator only supervises the banking sector. As a result, there are no laws in the sphere of forex trading, and local brokers are not obligated to meet any specific requirements – which has led to a huge number of scammers setting up companies in the country. The fact that no transaction reporting requirements exist in the country is an additional plus – money transferred to offshore locations is hard to trace which enables activities like money laundering, tax evasion, and other types of financial fraud.
Trading with an unlicensed company is risky – you could never be sure that you would be treated fairly and you can forget about all the protections clients of regulated brokers get access to. If you choose a broker regulated in the UK, the EU, or Australia, you could be sure that the broker had to meet many requirements before obtaining a license and that your rights will be protected by many laws. Minimum capital requirements exist in all of the regions we mentioned – €730 000 in the UK and the EU, and A$1 million in Australia. This money serves as proof that the broker is financially stable. Client money must be kept in segregated bank accounts – this ensures that your broker would not be able to reinvest your deposits, and keeps your money safe in cases of broker insolvency. In the EU and the UK, compensation funds ensure your capital up to €20 000 in the EU and £85 000 in the UK against broker insolvency.
Trade Swing TRADING SOFTWARE
On its website, Trade Swing promised access to both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 – the two leading trading platforms right now. However, none of the two platforms could be downloaded directly from the broker’s website. When we registered, it turned out that the broker does not offer MT4 at all and offered us to download MT5 instead. The download link, however, did not seem to function. As a result, we can conclude that this broker does not offer any trading opportunities – because it cannot simply offer you the chance to trade on an actually functional platform.
Check out brokers who can actually offer MT5. There is a good reason why this is currently the most popular trading platform – MT5 offers an amazing trading experience. The platform is both intuitive, and efficient, and offers access to a vast number of indicators, graphical objects, and timeframes as well as some useful additional features. You will be able to track markets and trade automatically with the help of Expert Advisors, employ a multi-threaded, muli-currency Strategy Tester, develop custom scripts, set trading signals, exchange strategies with others in a community chat, or purchase various add-ons on the MT market. All in all, this is a great option – both for relative beginners and for more advanced traders.
Trade Swing TRADING CONDITIONS
Trade Swing claimed that you would be getting access to a quite decent range of markets if you chose to invest with it – forex, indices, stocks, metals, cryptos, and energies. The broker supposedly offered access to two different types of accounts – and those were by no means affordable accounts. In order to open the most standard kind of account, you have to be willing to invest at least $2000 with this broker – which is far too much considering that most legitimate brokers would ask for no more than $250. However, there are plenty of brokers who can open an account for much less – even for as little as $10. Trade with such a broker instead of wasting time on scammers.
Trade Swing DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
The only way to deposit money with Trade Swing seemed to be via wire transfer. However, we were also encouraged to add a crypto wallet address – which might imply that the broker also offers opportunities for depositing in crypto. The common thing between both of these payment methods is that such transactions are irreversible. All crypto transfers go into a ledger that cannot be changed or tainted at a later point while bank wire transfers can technically be reversed but that is no easy job. Crypto transactions are also anonymous – they can always easily be traced to a wallet but you can never be sure who the person or organization behind that wallet address is.
Our recommendation here would be to refrain from depositing with Trade Swing – since all money you invest in this fraudulent scheme will be lost.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
It is vital to know how such scams work – this will also mean that you know how to avoid them.
One day, while you are casually browsing, you stumble upon an ad for a broker’s website. You think to yourself that earning a little extra sounds nice, especially since you have heard of people trading professionally. You take a look at the broker’s website and want to see what they have to offer so you register. Once you have provided the scammers with a phone number and an email, they won’t leave you alone before you deposit – keep in mind, that these are experienced scammers and they surely will manage to convince you. And if you have transferred money once, you will have to do it again and again – and you will readily do so since at this point you might even be turning a profit.
However, when you try to withdraw those profits, reasons, why this is impossible, will appear – additional taxes, unfulfilled clauses in the Terms and Conditions, etc. At some point, you will figure out something is wrong – but the scammers will be long-gone at this point – with your money, of course.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
The first thing you should do is change all your banking passwords and information you have given the scammers access to. If you have installed any remote access software, make sure to remove it. Scammers often claim that they will provide you with technical support or with help while trading if you install an app like TradingView or AnyDesk – but all they want is access to your computer and your banking systems.
If you have deposited with Visa or MasterCard, ask for a chargeback as soon as possible – both card providers have a policy that allows chargebacks within 540 days. If you have deposited in any other way, the chances of retrieving your money are much slimmer – but still, make sure to contact your bank to see if something could be done.
Notify the responsible authorities, and share your story with others – online, or in your acquaintance circle. This way, they will know to avoid scams like the one you fell victim to.
Finally, don’t trust anyone who calls themselves a “recovery agent” and promises to retrieve your money for a small fee – this is just another type of scam targeting desperate victims.
